A comment from Bill Schuetter today provided the missing clue to discovering a source for tuned squeeze horns. Bill provided a link to a YouTube video of the LA Philharmonic performing Gershwin’s ‘American In Paris’. There they are! and certainly orchestras around the world would need these to perform Gershwin. I found a few sources. See links below.

George Gershwin wrote for Tuned Taxi Horns in his composition An American in Paris. These horns come in a set of 4 pitches: A, B, C, & D. We have 3 sets of tuned taxi horns in our rental department and they all sound FANTASTIC! You will have no issues with our taxi horns; no muffled or dog barkish sounds, just pure taxi horn tone! As a percussionist for 10 years in the San Francisco Symphony, Trey Wyatt has used these horns for over 50 performances without failure.

The taxi horn part is normally played by one player. Gershwin actually writes for 2 players to each play 2 horns. However, it works brilliantly for this part to by played by 1 player, the cymbal player, as the cues for all the horn parts are written in the cymbal part.

Certainly not cheap to purchase. That’s about $750. U.S. From Kolberg in Germany.
A little cheaper at around $650 (but without the stand) from Jam in the U.K.
Most orchestras rent the set of horns. In the U.S. often from Steve Weiss Music outside of Philadelphia.
Also from LA Percussion Rentals. FSTJ Percussion in Quebec, Canada, and above-mentioned California Percussion.
I’ll be looking for a U.S. source to purchase. I’ve also emailed an Indian manufacturer to see what the thinks about custom building tuned horns.

Not that there was ever any doubt, but here’s picture proof that our horns are a class act. This is the 12″ medium loop horn mounted on Tim’s 1955 BMW. Beautiful! We were a little concerned about mounting the horn to his 7/8″ handle bars. He did use the attaching bracket I include, but supplemented it…

I used a zip tie to the clutch cable to increase the contact points. After taking the photo I inserted sail tape (used to stop sharp objects from ripping sailboat sails) between the handle bars and the clamp. This tightened the fit and prevents scratches to the chrome bars. The horn is loud (good) and is an excellent add on.

Brad from Rat City Brass sent us a picture of his way-cool percussion rack featuring one of our 16″ squeeze horns! RCB plays the music of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass! Thanks Brad!
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